The European ETF industry enjoyed strong inflows and growing assets under management over the course of 2026 so far. That said, the first nine months of 2026 were defined by a combination of geopolitical tensions, shifting fiscal priorities, and diverging monetary policies. Investors entered the year expecting a relatively stable environment supported by easing inflation and accommodative central banks. Instead, markets faced a more challenging backdrop shaped by energy security concerns, trade fragmentation, and renewed inflationary pressures.
Geopolitics became a central market driver. Escalating tensions in the Middle East, particularly involving Iran, created recurring concerns about energy supplies and global shipping routes. These developments revived fears that higher energy costs could reignite inflation and slow economic growth. Meanwhile, the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine continued to influence European security policy and reinforced the trend toward higher defense spending across the continent.
Global trade remained another key theme. The strategic rivalry between the United States and China continued to reshape supply chains and investment decisions. While both countries sought to avoid a return to full-scale tariff escalation, businesses continued diversifying production networks and reducing dependence on individual markets. Governments increasingly promoted industrial resilience and domestic production, accelerating longer-term shifts in global trade patterns.
Fiscal policy provided important support for economic activity. Across Europe, governments increased spending on defense, infrastructure, and strategic industries in response to a more uncertain geopolitical environment. Public investment helped offset weaker external demand and contributed to economic resilience. Similar initiatives were evident in other developed economies as policymakers sought to strengthen energy security, technological competitiveness, and supply chain independence.
Equity markets were driven by a balance between structural growth opportunities and macroeconomic uncertainty. Investment linked to artificial intelligence, semiconductors, data centers, and digital infrastructure remained a powerful theme throughout the period. Strong demand for technological innovation continued to attract capital despite concerns surrounding inflation, energy prices, and geopolitical risks. At the same time, market leadership frequently rotated as investors adjusted expectations for growth and monetary policy.
The most significant development for financial markets was the growing divergence among major central banks. Rather than moving in a coordinated direction, policymakers increasingly responded to domestic economic conditions, creating different policy paths across regions.
The European Central Bank adopted a more hawkish stance as inflation pressures proved more persistent than expected. In September, the ECB raised interest rates, citing inflation risks linked to the Middle East conflict and reaffirming its commitment to restoring price stability. Policymakers acknowledged economic resilience while highlighting continuing uncertainty surrounding both growth and inflation.
The Federal Reserve also moved toward tighter policy. After maintaining a cautious approach for much of the year, the Fed raised interest rates in September, pointing to resilient domestic demand and insufficient progress in returning inflation to target. The decision reflected a growing concern that inflation risks remained elevated despite a healthy economic backdrop.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan continued its gradual policy normalization, prompting investors to reassess longstanding funding and carry trade strategies. The Bank of England, by contrast, maintained a more balanced approach as it sought to manage inflation risks while supporting a slowing economy.
Bond markets reflected these changing expectations. Investors focused increasingly on inflation risks, fiscal sustainability, and central bank credibility. Hopes for synchronized global monetary easing faded, replaced by a more selective assessment of regional opportunities and risks.
By the end of September, financial markets were operating in an environment defined by policy divergence, geopolitical uncertainty, and economic resilience. Energy shocks, strategic competition, fiscal activism, and independent central bank actions shaped investor sentiment throughout the first three quarters, setting the stage for an equally challenging final quarter of 2026.
Assets Under Management in the European ETF Industry
From a European ETF industry perspective, the performance of the underlying markets led, in combination with the estimated net flows, to increasing assets under management (from €2,578.3 bn as of December 31, 2025, to €3,249.3 bn at the end of September). At a closer look, the increase in assets under management of €671.0 bn for 2026 so far was driven by estimated net inflows (+€346.7 bn), while the performance of the underlying markets added €324.3 bn to the assets under management.
Graph 1: Assets Under Management in the European ETF Industry, January 1, 2000 – September 30, 2026 (Euro Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
That said, September 2026 marked another record-breaking month for the European ETF industry, as the assets under management held in ETFs in Europe reached a new (month end) all-time high (€3,249.3).
As for the overall structure of the European ETF industry, it was not surprising equity ETFs (€2,560.0 bn) held the majority of assets, followed by bond ETFs (€550.4 bn), commodities ETFs (€62.9 bn), money market ETFs (€59.4 bn), alternatives ETFs (€11.1 bn), and mixed-assets ETFs (€5.4 bn).
Graph 2: Market Share, Assets Under Management in the European ETF Segment by Asset Type, September 30, 2026
Source: LSEG Lipper
Given the on average negative market environment over the course of the month, it is somewhat surprising that the overall assets under management (AUM) in the European ETF industry as well, as the AUM for alternatives, bond, and equity ETFs have reached new month end all-time highs at the end of September 2026.
ETF Flows by Asset Type
The inflows into the European ETF industry over the course of the first nine months of 2026 (+€346.7 bn) are already higher than the inflows into ETFs over the full year 2025 (+€332.5 bn). Hence the inflows into ETFs in Europe have already reached a new record and are on course to reach a new annual all-time high at the end of 2026. Unsurprisingly, March 2026 was the month with the lowest inflows into ETFs (+€10.5 bn) for 2026 so far. Nevertheless, the inflows for March showcase how resilient the fund flows into ETFs in Europe are, especially if one takes into account that mutual funds in Europe saw overall outflows for the same month.
Graph 3: Monthly Estimated Net Sales, January 1 – September 30, 2026 (Euro Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
Despite the somewhat rough market environment, the inflows in the European ETF industry for the first nine months of 2026 were driven by equity ETFs (+€267.6 bn), followed by bond ETFs (+€60.4 bn), money market ETFs (+€16.0 bn), commodities ETFs (+€1.8 bn), alternatives ETFs (+€0.6 bn), and mixed-assets ETFs (+€0.3 bn).
Graph 4: Estimated Net Sales by Asset Type, January 1 – September 30, 2026 (Euro Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
Given the general market environment, it was somewhat surprising to see that the estimated net inflows into ETFs were led by such a wide margin by equity ETFs. That said, the relatively high inflows into money market products might be a sign for a flight to safe havens by European investors to avoid volatility in the bond markets or possibly rising rates, as the rising inflation may put some pressure on central banks around the globe.
As graph 5 shows, equity ETFs enjoyed inflows in each of the nine months of 2026 so far, while bond ETFs faced outflows in March. The graph also shows that the inflows in equity ETFs were somewhat stable over the course of January and February and slowed down over the course of March, just to return to a stable pattern for the rest of 2026 so far. The slowdown in March was mainly driven by the start of the war in the Middle East. Nevertheless, the flows in equity ETFs stayed positive, which once again showed the resilience of ETF flows in times of market turmoil. This might be seen as a sign that European investors like the liquidity, tradability, and transparency of ETFs, especially in times when markets are rough.
Graph 5: Monthly Estimated Net Sales by Asset Type, January 1, 2026 – September 30, 2026 (USD billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
The trend for the estimated net flows over the course of the first nine month of 2026 was somewhat surprising. This was especially true when it comes to the high inflows for January (+€48.2 bn) and February (+€48.7 bn), as both months were setting a new record for monthly inflows into ETFs in Europe and brought the inflows into ETFs to a new level. While the flows returned to a normal but elevated level over the course of April, May, and June, they reached a new monthly record in July (+€49.3 bn) and returned again to their elevated “normal” level. When it comes to this, it is noteworthy that the old record for monthly inflows into ETFs in Europe stood at €39.6 bn (October 25).
The overall fund flow pattern shows that the estimated net inflows into ETFs in Europe may have reached a new level, since the record flows for the year so far were not driven by a single month. This may lead to the conclusion that the adoption of ETFs by all kind of investors is further increasing in Europe despite the opinion of some market observers who may see a saturation in the use of ETFs or a shift in sentiment toward actively managed mutual funds.
Assets Under Management by Management Approach
A quick view of the assets under management of actively managed ETFs (€129.4 bn) at the end of September 2026 shows that the assets under management in this market segment do not keep up with the hype around these products. Nevertheless, since these products held “only” €83.7 bn in assets under management at the end of December 2025, the market segment of actively managed ETFs can be considered a growth segment.
That said, the assets under management for passive ETFs stood at €2,495.9 bn at the end of December 2025 and reached €3,250.7 bn at the end of September 2026.
Graph 6: Assets Under Management in the European ETF Industry by Management Approach, December 31, 2025, and September 30, 2026 (Euro Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
With regard to this, it is noteworthy that the assets under management for actively managed ETFs (+54.60%) grew much faster than the assets under management of passive ETFs (+25.03%) over the course of the first nine months of 2026. Even as the assets under management grew from a much smaller pattern, these numbers underpin the overall assumption that actively managed ETFs are a fast growing market segment in the European ETF industry.
Estimated Net Flows by Management Approach
The inflows into the European ETF industry by management approach obviously follow the same pattern as the overall estimated net flows. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to analyse the estimated net flows by management approach to determine if actively managed ETFs are a real growth segment in the European ETF industry, or if the growth in assets under management for this market segment has mainly been driven by the performance of the underlying markets.
Actively managed ETFs were able to gather €33.2 bn, or 9.55%, of the overall estimated net flows in the European ETF industry over the course of the first nine months of 2026. This means that the market share of the fund flows for actively managed ETFs is much higher than their market share of the assets under management, hence the segment of actively managed ETFS is a real growth segment.
Passive ETFs gathered €314.5 bn, or 90.45%, of the overall estimated net flows into ETFs in Europe over the course of 2026 so far. This means that passive ETFs are the product of choice for European investors, while actively managed ETFs are growing at a fast pace.
Graph 7: Monthly Estimated Net Sales, January 1 – September 30, 2026 (Euro Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
This flow pattern might be seen as a sign that the inflows into actively managed ETFs are as resilient to market turmoil as the inflows into passive ETFs. That said, since we haven’t witnessed a real market correction yet, actively managed ETFs need to prove their resilience when it comes to fund flows in the future.
Assets Under Management by Lipper Global Classifications
In order to examine the European ETF markets in further detail, a review of the Lipper global classifications will lead to more insights on the structure and concentration of assets within the European ETF industry. At the end of September, the European ETF market was split into 194 different peer groups. The highest assets under management at the end of September were held by ETFs classified as Equity U.S. (€771.6 bn), followed by Equity Global (€668.9 bn), Equity Europe (€251.0 bn), Equity Emerging Markets Global (€185.0 bn), and Equity Sector Information Technology (€92.5 bn). These five peer groups accounted for €1,969.0 bn, or 60.60%, of the overall assets under management in the European ETF segment, while the 10-top classifications by assets under management accounted for €2,246.0 bn, or 69.12%.
Overall, 16 of the 194 Lipper classifications each accounted for more than 1% of assets under management. In total, these 16 classifications accounted for €2,480.4 bn, or 76.33%, of the overall assets under management (Please read the article: Review of the Market Concentration of Assets Under Management in the European ETF Industry at the Classification Level for information on this topic).
Graph 8: Ten Largest Lipper Global Classifications by Assets Under Management, September 30, 2026 (Euro Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
More generally, the rankings of the largest classifications saw some movement in single positions over the last few years. As the positions of the classifications had been quite stable in the past, this indicates that European investors use ETFs to trade according to their market views. Even as some of these positions might be core holdings, once investors got into risk-off mode they also reduced their exposure to core asset classes.
Despite the fact that the rankings at the top of the league table show some changes from time to time, these numbers show that the assets under management by Lipper global classifications continued to be highly concentrated in the European ETF industry.
The classifications on the other side of the table showed some funds in the European ETF market are quite low in assets and their constituents may face the risk of being closed in the near future. They are obviously lacking investor interest and might, therefore, not be profitable for their respective fund promoters (Please read our report: “Will the ETFs in the Smallest Lipper Classifications in the European ETF Industry Survive?” for more details on this topic).
Graph 9: Ten Smallest Lipper Global Classifications by Assets Under Management, September 30, 2026 (Euro Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
ETF Flows by Lipper Global Classifications
The net inflows of the 10 best-selling Lipper classifications for the first nine months of 2026 accounted for €246.1 bn. In line with the overall sales trend for Q3 2026, equity peer groups (+€218.1 bn) dominated the flows by asset type on the table of the 10 best-selling peer groups by estimated net inflows. That said, it was surprising to see only two bond classifications—Bond Global USD(+€9.3 bn) and Bond EMU Government (+€6.4 bn)—on the table of the 10 best-selling classifications for the first nine months of 2026, taking the general market sentiment into account. Given the overall fund flow trend in the European ETF industry, it was somewhat surprising that Equity Global (+€105.5 bn) was the best-selling Lipper global classification for 2026 so far by a wide margin since this spot was held by Equity U.S. for a long time. Nevertheless, Equity U.S. (+€49.8 bn), was the second best-selling Lipper classification for the year so far, followed by Equity Emerging Markets Global (+€22.5 bn), Equity Europe (+€13.4 bn), and Money Market EUR (+€12.4 bn).
Generally speaking, it is not surprising that Equity Europe (+€13.4 bn) is on the table of the 10 best-selling Lipper classifications given the overall market trend of increasing flows into ETFs investing in Europe and the good performance of European equities. That said, it looked like this trend would revert in Q2 since Equity Europe faced outflows in each month of the quarter, but the inflows into Equity Europe returned in Q3 and kept the overall trend alive. In addition to this, it is also not surprising to see Equity Sector Industrials on the list of the 10 best-selling classifications for 2026 so far, since the classification profited from the strong inflows into defense-related ETFs and the overall sector rotation toward classic value sectors.
The general trend of inflows into money market products continued over the course of the first nine months of 2026. Nevertheless, money market is in general not considered as a core asset type within the European ETF industry. However, taking the market environment and the overall fund flow trends into account, it was not surprising to see Money Market EUR (+€12.4 bn) on the table of the 10 best-selling classifications in the European ETF industry.
Graph 10: Ten Best- and Worst-Lipper Global Classifications by Estimated Net Sales, January 1 – September 30, 2026 (Euro Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
More generally, these numbers showed the European ETF segment is also highly concentrated when it comes to fund flows by Lipper classification. Generally speaking, one would expect the flows into ETFs to be concentrated since investors often use ETFs to implement their long-term market views and short-term asset allocation decisions. These products are made and, therefore, are easy to use for these purposes.
On the other side of the table, the 10 classifications with the highest estimated net outflows for 2026 so far accounted for €10.0 bn in outflows.
Equity China (-€2.5 bn) was the classification with the highest outflows for the year 2026 so far. It was bettered by Equity Sector Financials (-€1.9 bn), Equity Germany Small & Mid Cap (-€1.4 bn), Commodity Precious Metals (-€1.1 bn), and Equity Finland (-€0.7 bn).
Assets Under Management by Promoters
A closer look at assets under management by promoters in the European ETF industry also showed high concentration, with only 39 of the 127 ETF promoters in Europe holding assets at or above €1.0 bn, accounting for €3,236.3 bn. It is noteworthy that Lipper has readjusted its definition of an ETF promoter. As a result, the number of ETF promoters in Europe went up sharply in April 2026 (78), as we now also list ETF promoters which are using white label platforms for their products as stand-alone promoters. The largest ETF promoter in Europe—iShares (€1,309.1 bn)—accounted for 40.73% of the overall assets under management. This number is far ahead of the number-two promoter—Amundi ETF (€420.2 bn)—and the number-three promoter—Xtrackers (€336.4 bn). (To learn more about the concentration of the European ETF market at the promoter level, please read our report: Review of the concentration of the assets under management in the European ETF industry on promoter level).
Graph 11: The 10 Largest ETF Promoters by Assets Under Management, September 30, 2026 (Euro Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
The 10-top promoters accounted for €2,993.8 bn, or 92.05%, of the overall assets under management in the European ETF industry. This meant, in turn, the other 117 ETF promoters registering at least one ETF for sale in Europe accounted for only 7.95% of the overall assets under management.
ETF Flows by Promoters
Since the European ETF market is highly concentrated when it comes to assets under management by promoter, it was not surprising that nine of the 10 largest promoters by assets under management were among the 10-top selling ETF promoters for the year 2026 so far. iShares was the best-selling ETF promoter in Europe for the first nine months of 2026 (+€103.1 bn), ahead of Amundi ETF (+€43.4 bn) and Vanguard (+€41.0 bn).
Graph 12: Ten Best-Selling ETF Promoters, January 1 – September 30, 2026 (Euro Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
The flows of the 10-top promoters accounted for estimated net inflows of €308.4 bn. As for the overall flow trend for the first nine months of 2026, it was clear that some of the 127 promoters (26) which were active in the European ETF industry over the course of 2026 so far faced estimated net outflows (-€4.9 bn in total).
Assets Under Management by ETFs
There were 5,157 instruments (primary share classes [2,663] and convenience share classes [2,494]) listed as ETFs in the Lipper database at the end of September. Regarding the overall market pattern, it was not surprising assets under management at the ETF level were also highly concentrated. Only 568 of the 2,663 ETFs (primary share classes = portfolios = ETFs) held assets above €1.0 bn each. These ETFs accounted for €2,818.6 bn, or 86.74%, of the overall assets in the European ETF industry. Only 46 ETFs accounted for more than €10.0 bn in assets under management at the end of September. These 46 ETFs accounted for €1,223.4 bn in assets under management. This means 1.73% of the ETFs accounted for 37.65% of the overall assets under management.
The 10 largest ETFs in Europe accounted for €649.2 bn, or 19.98%, of the overall assets under management.
Graph 13: The 10 Largest ETFs by Assets Under Management, September 30, 2026 (Euro Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
These numbers show that only a small number of ETFs have been able to gather a significant amount of assets under management so far, since only 21.33% of the available ETFs hold more than €1.0 bn in AUM, while only 1.73% of all available ETFs are hold more than €10.0 bn in assets under management.
Estimated Net Flows at the ETF Level
A total of 1,860 of the 2,663 ETFs (primary share classes = portfolios = ETFs) analyzed in this report showed net inflows of more than €10,000 each for the first nine months of 2026, accounting for inflows of €427.2 bn. This meant the other 803 instruments faced no flows, or net outflows, for the month. Upon closer inspection, only 653 of the 1,860 ETFs posting net inflows enjoyed inflows of more than €100 m over the course of the first nine months of 2026—for a total of €396.6 bn. The best-selling ETF for the year so far was Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF, which enjoyed estimated net inflows of €23.0 bn. It was followed by State Street SPDR MSCI All Country World UCITS ETF (+€9.4 bn) and iShares MSCI All Country World UCITS ETF (+€7.1 bn).
Graph 14: The 10 Best-Selling ETFs, September 1 – September 30, 2026 (Euro Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
The flow pattern at the fund level indicated there was a lot of turnover and rotation during the month, but it also showed the concentration of the European ETF industry even better than the statistics at the promoter or classification levels since the 10 best-selling ETFs account for inflows of €73.70 bn.
Given its size and the overall trend for net sales at the promoter level, it was somewhat surprising that only three of the 10 best-selling funds for September were issued by iShares. These iShares ETFs accounted for estimated net inflows of €16.7 bn.
This article is for information purposes only and does not constitute any investment advice.
The views expressed are the views of the author, not necessarily those of Lipper or LSEG.
